Midnight Daydreams

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
—Mark Twain

Well I didn’t get around to making that post about WoW yet, but today as  I was writing some journal entries for my American Literature class, I got really into one and it started to get very long, so I’ll probably use it as my second paper for the class.

I decided it would tie in well to the theme of this blog, so I’ll post what I have so far.

I love living in Florida. I enjoy the warm weather, most of the people are nice, there are lots of things to do, and it doesn’t snow here. I don’t think I could ever move back to New Jersey permanently, but I will always visit. In the 18 years I did live there though, it was mostly a great experience that I’ll probably not get to experience again. The town I lived in was very different from where I live now. Franklin, New Jersey is a smaller town in the mountains of northern New Jersey. It’s kind of the “gateway” to northwestern NJ(from the rest of NJ anyway.)

Franklin was established as a mining town(which in turn helped it become the mineral capital of the world), and at one time was probably a very busy place(for the time period), but today it is probably comparable to any small town you would find in Pasco County.

To a teenager was a pretty boring place, but to a younger kid growing up there, it was full of adventure. I lived on a dead end street right next to the woods, and when we weren’t playing around in the streets, we were in those woods exploring the unknown. Often enough we’d come across many different forms of wildlife, opossum, deer, raccoons, a few squirrels, and the occasional bear(in which case we promptly bolted in the opposite direction.) Being an old mining town, there were a lot of ruins and old abandoned buildings, and mines(which we stayed away from.) These provided additional places to explore, and “escape” from the “real world”.

Every once and a while on the weekends, my dad would take me and my friend fishing at Franklin pond(which was actually a lake), or the Walkill River. This soon became one of my favorite hobbies, and we began to venture throughout Sussex County in search of new places to fish. My dad was also really into trains and their history, much of which is a big part of the area we lived in. All around Sussex County there were abandoned “rail trails” which were basically trails where trains used to run. Along these trails you can find a number of different artifacts from the time when trains were a major part of American life. Some of the things we found were lights from crossing signs, the signs themselves, and an abundance of railroad ties and nails. We started off walking on small sections of these vast trails, but eventually we got into mountain biking, and so we were able to explore large portions of these trails in a few hours. One of the best parts about these trails was that the majority of them ran through nothing but the wilderness. Often these trains go past rivers, lakes, over mountains, beautiful open fields, or just through the woods. No matter where the trails went though, it was always an enjoyable experience.

As our exploration of Sussex County continued, we came along a place called the Big Flat Brook. Little did I know that this was probably one few places left in the state that was virtually untouched by humans, and one of the best fishing spots ever.

I’ll finish the rest this weekend. Time for Gruul’s!

Just a quick note on what I plan on blogging about later…

I play World of Warcraft, and my raiding guild recently promoted me to become the leader of the guild.

Later, I will talk about how that came to be, what my plans for the guild are, and how I can use this experience to get a job in real life.

Off to school now!

Hello world, my name is Mike.

I’ve never really cared for blogs much, I have never been to write in a journal, or diary, I never saw the point.

A man may stop growing physically at 18, but a man will grow mentally his entire life.

I just came up with that right now, kind of profound I think.

But seriously.

I’m 22 now, and I feel like I’ve grown more mentally in the last 4 years that I did in the 18 years up to that point. Understanding our world excites, amazes, confuses, and even scares me a little bit the more and more I learn about it.

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty decent writer, so I’ve decided to give this blogging thing a try(and to be completely honest, I’m actually enjoying this right now).

So feel free to join in on an adventure of the world from my perspective.

Now that I got some introductory stuff squared away, I can get to the meat of what I want to talk about!

I should be sleeping right now(3 hours ago actually), but laying in bed is when I feel the most creative.

My mind is working in overdrive as I’m trying to go to sleep, which is probably why I have so many cool dreams. I made this blog a few days ago, but I decided that if I’m going to blog, I should just stop waiting and do it already! I probably should have picked a better time, but you can’t choose when you have great ideas, right?

I’d just like to mention that I’m really having a lot of fun with this right now, even though I’m 99% sure no one is reading, it kind of feels good to just talk about whatever I feel like talking about, and see it out in front of me.

Man, I didn’t know what I’ve been missing out on!

But getting back to what I was saying, I think of so many cool things when I’m laying in bed going to sleep, as I’m sure a lot of people do.

One of the things I was thinking of a little while ago, is that I wish I could just go off and “be”.

I’d love to just travel the world, and see everything thats out there, without having to worry about a job back home, or having bills to pay, or much responsibility at all really… I’m sure many people would love to do that as well. I’m confident I can achieve something similar to this dream one day, but obviously we will all have some responsibilities we can’t get away from.

One of the places I’d love to travel is Ireland. I was watching the movie “P.S. I love you” the other night(so what if it’s a chick flick?!) and it’s a really great movie. One of the things King Leonidas err..Gerard Butler’s character does for his widow, is send her and her two best friends on a trip to Ireland(he says he’s Irish in the movie, but he’s actually Scottish, but hey it’s close) because thats where they first met, and I thought to myself, I’d love to go there one day.

I’d love to go to many different European countries in the future actually, they’re all so beautiful, and have amazing historical sites throughout the land.

I’d go alone, but If it were possible, I’d love to bring my Great-Grandmother, as her mother was from Ireland, and she’s only been there a few times to see her family. I don’t know how possible this would be, seeing as how she just turned 92(though is still very mobile and in good shape for her age!) last month.

Along with her, I’d love to take my mother’s parents to Europe as well, more specifically Italy, as thats where my Grandma’s family is from, and my Grandpa(my great-grandmother’s son) is Irish, but he loves Italy and Italian culture, probably because of my Grandma, and the fact that he was stationed there for a while when he was in the Navy. I’m not sure about my other grandparents though, I’m sure my Grandpa would love it(his parents were Italian too, and his wife is of Irish heritage), but I’m not sure my Grandma would appreciate it as much.

I’d love to take my parents there as well. My dad went to Spain when he was 15 for a class trip, and has loved Hispanic culture ever since. I would like to take him back there someday, as I’m sure he would definitely appreciate the experience. My mom too would probably love it, but getting her there is another story…

As much as I would love to write more, I really should be getting to sleep, last class of the week tomorrow. I’ll probably explain that in another post soon.

This will not be the last you hear of me, I promise! I’m really enjoying the heck out of this.

Until tomorrow evening!

The layout I chose is one of the presets WordPress has in their settings, I thought it was pretty cool, nothing too extreme, but elegant with a touch of flair.

One of these days I’ll have to get around to making one of my own, seeing as how I’m a computer artist(and one of these days I’ll have to change my professional title so it’s not so broad!).

Ironic as it may sound, even though I consider myself an artist, I’m terrible at creating things from scratch usually, so any suggestions for things to implement into the design layout would be appreciated!